Of special focus in this reflective overview of Wesley's theological convictions is highlighting the practical-theological dynamics of Wesley's work and suggesting possible implications for contemporary attempts to recover theology as a practical discipline. Another distinctive focus of this work is a systematic consideration of the integration of theological emphases traditionally divergent in Eastern and Western Christianity. The author also closely examines the consistency of Wesley's thought throughout his career.

In seven chapters, Willimon examines United Methodism and the ways it has made and continues to make a difference in his life. In an inspiring and enlightening way, he writes of his pride in being part of a church that has grown from one man's experience to a worldwide movement covering the globe with its message. A learning guide for groups and individuals is included. Chapter titles: Because Religion Is of the Heart Because the Bible Is Our Book Because Religion Is Practical Because Christians Are to Witness Because Christians Are to Grow Because Religion Is Not a Private Affair

This volume, first published in German in 1976, still stands as the most definitive, comprehensive treatment of John Wesley's social ethics. John Wesley's Social Ethics offers a balanced treatment that dispels notions that Wesley can easily be categorized as only an evangelist or only a social reformer. It demonstrates that Wesley's theological and spiritual concerns were catalytic in his social program. It encourages a rethinking of the importance of theology for social ethics in the Methodist tradition.

The first presentation of John Wesley's doctrinal teachings in a systematic form that is also faithful to Wesley's own writings in ebook format. Wesley was a prolific writer and commentator on Scripture, yet it is commonly held that he was not systematic or internally consistent in his theology and doctrinal teachings. On the contrary, Thomas C. Oden intends to demonstrate here that Wesley displayed a remarkable degree of consistency over sixty years of preaching and ministry. The book helps readers to grasp Wesley's essential teachings in an accessible form so that the person desiring to go directly to Wesley's own writings (which fill eighteen volumes) will know exactly where to turn.

Perceptible inspiration, a term used by John Wesley to describe the complicated relationship between Holy Spirit, religious knowledge, and the nature of spiritual being, is not unlike the term 'Methodist' which was also coined by critics of Methodism during the eighteenth century in Britain. John Wesley's adversaries, especially the pseudonymous John Smith with whom Wesley exchanged letters for a period of three years, frequently challenged the plausibility of direct spiritual sensation, which Wesley defended. What does Wesley mean by perceptible inspiration? What does the teaching reveal about the nature and existence of God in Wesley's thinking? What does it suggest about the spiritual nature of humankind? In John Wesley's Pneumatology, it is argued that 'perceptible inspiration' more than a sidebar of Methodist thought, offers a useful model for considering the various features of Wesley's views on the work of the Spirit in relation to human existence, participatory religious knowledge, and moral theology.